Dienstag, 30. Januar 2018 - 08:15 Uhr

The University of Hawai‘i said in a statement Monday that the Thirty Meter Telescope will be the last telescope project to be built on Maunakea.

"The University of Hawai‘i clarifies and confirms that the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project is the last new area on the mountain where a telescope project will be contemplated or sought," said UH System president David Lassner in a letter to the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

Additionally, Lassner said in the letter, UH will decommission three telescopes and "no new observatories will be constructed on those sites."

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Accept its responsibility to do a better job in the future.

Formally and legally bind itself to the commitment that this is the last area on the mountain where a telescope project will be contemplated or sought.

Decommission – beginning this year – as many telescopes as possible with at least 25 percent of all telescopes gone by the time TMT is ready for operation.

Restart the EIS process for the university’s lease extension and conduct a full cultural impact assessment as part of that process.

Move expeditiously the access rules that significantly limit and put conditions on non­cultural access to the mountain.

Require training in the cultural aspects of the mountain and how to be respectful to the cultural areas for anyone going on the mountain.

Substantially reduce the length of its request for a lease extension from the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

Voluntarily return to full DLNR jurisdiction all lands (over 10,000 acres) not specifically needed for astronomy.

Ensure full use of its scheduled telescope time.

Make a good faith effort to revisit the issue of payments by the existing telescope now as well as requiring it in the new lease.

Quelle: KA LEO

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UH: Thirty Meter Telescope project will be last new site on Mauna Kea

In a letter released Monday from University of Hawaii President David Lassner to Department of Land and Natural Resources Chair Suzanne Case, the university confirms that the Thirty Meter Telescope project site is the last new area on the mountain where a telescope project will be contemplated or sought.

The letter states in part that it “shall constitute a legally binding commitment and may be regarded as a condition of the University of Hawaii’s current lease(s) and of any lease renewal or extension proposed by the University.”

The commitment fulfills the second point of Governor David Ige’s 10-point “Way Forward” plan that addresses future management and stewardship of Mauna Kea.

UH said it also fulfilled the third point of the plan, officially identifying three telescopes — the Caltech Submillimeter Telescope, UH-Hilo’s Hoku Tea telescope and the UKIRT Observatory — that will be decommissioned and permanently removed before the Thirty Meter Telescope project begins operations.

On Tuesday, Nov. 17, the Hawaii Supreme Court granted an emergency motion to halt construction on the telescope. The respondents, Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Land and Natural Resources and the University of Hawaii at Hilo, have until Tuesday, Nov. 24 to respond.

Quelle: khon2

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Update: 27.01.2016

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Gouverneur Ige engagiert sich weiterhin für TMT

Governor David Ige reconfirmed his stance on the currently stalled Thirty Meter Telescope project during his State of the State address on Monday morning.

The Hawai’i governor compared the project to the failure of the SuperFerry, noting the state’s failure to justly following the rules.

“Its failure [the SuperFerry] has been attributed to environmental objections and a hostile court. But that is not exactly what happened,” Governor Ige said. “The fact is the state failed to follow the law. When we tried a legal end run, it also failed. The point is the state should have followed the law and done the right thing in the first place.”

Governor Ige noted that when he visited Mauna Kea in April 2015, he felt that something wasn’t right, and that it was clear that despite his belief that the telescope needs to be built, that things had gone wrong along the way.

TMT was delayed for months beginning in April 2015 as opponents of the project blocked the Mauna Kea Access Road. Dozens of arrests took place over the course of several attempts to ascend the mountain, but ultimately, and after several months, the Hawai’i Supreme Court invalidated the telescope builder’s construction permit.

“In its recent ruling, the Supreme Court did not say don’t do this project,” Governor Ige said. “What it did say was that the state didn’t do the right things in the approval process. It told us we needed to do a better job of listening to people and giving them a real opportunity to be heard.

“I am committed to pursuing this project and I hope its sponsors will stay with us. And this time, we will listen carefully to all, reflect seriously on what we have heard and, whatever we do in the end, we will do it the right way.”

TMT officials issued a statement late Monday afternoon, noting their appreciation for the governor’s continued support:

“The governor noted that he has been ‘listening to a lot of people, their hopes as well as their concerns.’ TMT appreciates this approach. Since 2008, TMT has listened to the environmental, cultural and economic concerns expressed by the many residents at numerous public meetings. Its current design and construction and operational plan are the result of our hearing and responding to their concerns.

“TMT is waiting for the Board of Land and Natural Resources to advise all parties to the litigation on the process, procedures and scheduling for a new contested case. In the meantime, TMT continues to assess our possible next steps.

“Governor Ige also stated that technology and the ‘innovation economy’ are important contributors to Hawai’i’s ability to compete in a global economy, and to higher-paying jobs in Hawaii. Astronomy and TMT in particular are contributors in providing opportunity and financial support for both of those goals.”

Quelle: East Hawaii News

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Update: 12.02.2016

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University of Hawai‘i Reaffirms Support of TMT Project

University of Hawaiʻi

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The University of Hawaiʻi's response to recent media reports that the Thirty Meter Telescope is now exploring alternative sites as a “Plan B” if it canʻt build in Hawaiʻi:

The University of Hawaiʻi remains steadfast in our support for locating the Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawai‘i. The project is a tremendous scientific and economic opportunity for Hawaiʻi Island and the state. It will be a cornerstone of the next generation of astronomy in Hawaiʻi, one of the anchors of our research and innovation enterprise. TMT is also providing educational, scholarship and STEM support for Hawai’i Island schools and substantial resources for improved stewardship of Maunakea. UH was the original permit applicant for the project and will be deeply involved in the upcoming Land Board proceedings, as we have been throughout the process to date.

Quelle: University of Hawaiʻi

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Update: 21.09.2017

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Pro, anti-telescope arguments aim to sway Hawaii land board

FILE - This Aug. 31, 2015, file photo shows telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii's Big Island. Hawaii's land board will hear arguments over a judge's recommendation that a construction permit be granted for a giant telescope planned for a Hawaii mountain summit that some consider sacred. The $1.4 billion project is embroiled in another round of hearings after the state Supreme Court invalidated a construction permit the land board previously issued. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones, File)

Hawaii's land board is hearing arguments for and against building a giant telescope on a mountain some consider sacred.

Wednesday's hearing in a Hilo hotel comes after the retired judge overseeing contested-case hearings for the Thirty Meter Telescope recommended granting the project a construction permit. Riki May Amano issued her recommendation in July after hearing testimony that spanned 44 days.

Opponents and supporters are echoing much of the arguments made during those oftentimes emotional days of testimony.

Telescope opponent Kahookahi Kanuha says it's up to Native Hawaiians to determine which places are sacred and how they should be protected.

It's not clear when the board will make a decision.

Quelle: abcnews

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Update: 30.09.2017

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Hawai’i Gives Go-Ahead to Thirty Meter Telescope

After protests and a judge's ruling brought the colossal Thirty Meter Telescope project to a halt, a state panel has cleared the way for its construction atop Mauna Kea to proceed.

On September 29th, after five months of public hearings that involved 71 witness testimonies and a review of more than 800 submitted documents, the Board of Land and Natural Resources for the state of Hawai'i announced its decision to allow the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea to resume.

This artist's conception shows an aerial view of the Thirty Meter Telescope on top of Mauna Kea. TMT

Yesterday's BNLR announcement, made after a 5-to-2 vote by its members, means that construction of the TMT can proceed. However, that's unlikely because opponents plan to appeal the decision to the Hawai'i Supreme Court. Pending that appeal, no protests on the mountain have materialized yet. However, the Hawai'i Unity & Liberation Institute declared, "As daunting of a task it might be to stop construction of the TMT, we have once again been left with no choice but to resist and take matters back into our own hands."

Arrested protesters chant before police remove them from the summit of Mauna Kea on April 2, 2015.Occupy Hawaii

Indigenous Hawaiians consider Mauna Kea sacred, and it has long been the site of religious ceremonies and burials. Its slopes are dotted with shrines, offering altars, and hidden burial grounds. Yet the summit, 13,802 feet (4,207 meters) high, has long been prized by astronomers for its pristine, nearly cloud-free access to the night sky.

Thanks to a series of agreements, stretching back to 1968, the state has allowed the University of Hawai'i to develop and manage observatories on a 65-acre "science reserve" at the summit. The latest version of the management plan, from 2009, specifies terms for the 13 facilities now in place.

But TMT is not just another telescope. Its dome will be 218 feet (66 m) across and 180 feet (55 m) high. Ordinarily, that would be easily visible from much of the Big Island. However, explains Tom Geballe (Gemini Observatory), "The TMT site is on a lava plain several hundred feet of elevation below the summit and will be visible from very few locations on the island. It will not even be visible from the summit itself (unlike many of the other telescopes)."

Aside from its sheer size, opponents argued that construction would disturb sacred sites and that, once completed, its day-to-day operation might contaminate the summit.

The Ruling's Caveats

In allowing the construction of TMT to move forward, the state board's 345-page report concluded that the TMT project satisfied eight key criteria covering appropriate land use, conservation, and environmental concerns. As the ruling pointedly notes in its preface, "The TMT will not pollute groundwater, will not damage any historic sites, will not harm rare plants or animals, will not release toxic materials, and will not otherwise harm the environment. It will not significantly change the appearance of the summit of Mauna Kea from populated areas on Hawai‘i Island."

Speaking to reporters during the announcement, BNLR chairperson Suzanne Case addressed opponents' contention that the TMT would infringe on religious rights. "Under the federal and state constitutions," she stated, "a group's religious beliefs cannot be given veto power over the use of public land."

However, after carefully weighing the many objections raised during the public hearings, the board also imposed 43 special conditions. Among them:

Three existing telescopes will be decommissioned and removed from the summit, with no other telescopes replacing them. Although the report doesn't say so specifically, plans are already well under way to remove the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory and a domed 0.7-m teaching telescope called Hoku Kea. The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope is a rumored third candidate.

Two more existing facilities, including the Very Long Baseline Array antenna, must be removed by the end of 2033.

All project employees must receive mandatory cultural and natural-resources training.

TMT must adopt a "Zero Waste Management" policy, trucking all waste products off the summit.

The project must contribute $1 million annually, in addition to the $2½ million it has provided each year since 2014, to community projects on the Big Island.

Some of these requirements, especially the removal of existing telescopes, closely follow a 10-point "Path Forward" request that Governor David Ige made to the University of Hawai'i in May 2015.

A statement by the University of Hawai'i about the BNLR decision notes, in part, "The university first applied for this permit seven years ago, and we believe this decision and the underlying vote represent a fitting and fair reflection of an issue that has divided many in the community who care deeply about Maunakea."

Meanwhile, the possibility remains that TMT will not be built in Hawai'i at all. Project officials had looked at other potential sites, both north and south of the equator, and had homed in on La Palma in the Canary Islands as a suitable location. However, for now Mauna Kea remains the most desirable site. That could change pending opponent's challenges before the state's Supreme Court.

Quelle: Sky&Telescope

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Update: 30.01.2018

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The era of extremely large telescopes

Ground-based observatories rarely attract the attention, and controversy, of large space missions. The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) has been an exception to that.

TMT has been the subject of political debate, protests, and lawsuits in recent years, based on opposition from some native Hawaiians to plans to build the observatory atop Maunakea on the Big Island of Hawaii. A Hawaiian court ruled a state agency had improperly awarded a construction permit for the telescope, forcing the organization developing the TMT, the TMT International Observatory (TIO) LLC, to go through a new “contested case” process for a permit.

At the same time, the organization was developing a backup plan. In October 2016 it announced the selection of a backup site, Observtorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) on La Palma in the Canary Islands. Planning for developing TMT there has been going on in parallel with the ongoing legal process in Hawaii. At a meeting last January of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Texas, telescope officials suggested a decision on whether the build TMT in Hawaii or La Palma would be made by that fall (see “Decision time for the Thirty Meter Telescope,” The Space Review, January 9, 2017).

A year later, that decision is still forthcoming, but project officials said they plan to make a choice soon. “Maunakea certainly remains our preferred site for TMT. ORM is an excellent alternative should Maunakea prove impractical,” said Tom Soifer, a Caltech physics professor and member of the board of the TMT International Observatory, during a town hall meeting about the telescope at the AAS meeting early this month in suburban Washington. “Our board, the TIO board, will be making a decision about the site in the spring of 2018, with a plan to initiate construction as soon as possible thereafter.”

The two sites will be in different stages of readiness if the TIO board sticks to that schedule. The TMT won a victory in Hawaii in September when the Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources approved a new construction permit for the telescope atop Maunakea. But, Soifer noted, opponents of the telescope appealed the decision to the Hawaii Supreme Court, even as the state appealed the ruling the required the contested case hearing in the first place. “You’d be amazed at all of the things lawyers can find to do,” he said.

On La Palma, the process has been much smoother. Construction planning documents are nearly complete for the ORM site, Soifer said, and an environmental impact had been submitted to the local government. With no evidence of significant opposition to the telescope, he said he expected the government to issue a permit for building TMT there by February or March.

Maunakea, though, remains the preferred site for several scientific reasons. The lower latitude of Maunakea will allow the telescope to see more of the southern sky than at ORM. The lower altitude of ORM—more than 1,500 meters below Maunakea—means more water vapor in the atmosphere, affecting infrared observations. “For wavelengths beyond about 2.5 microns, observations for longer wavelengths are compromised” there versus Maunakea, Soifer said.

The legal dispute in Hawaii, though, won’t be completed by the planned April deadline for a decision. “The appeals have been filed, but the court has not made any indication of what it wants to do with those appeals,” Soifer said after the town hall meeting. “The best case would be late spring or early summer of 2018.”

Even if a decision leads to work starting this year, Soifer said it would not be until the late 2020s before the TMT is ready to being observations. “If we start construction during 2018, we should be seeing first light about a decade later,” he said.

The other large telescopes

TMT is not the only so-called “extremely large telescope” under development. Two others are also in early phases of development in the Southern Hemisphere that have largely escape the controversy surrounding the TMT.

“If you couldn’t do more than one mirror at a time, it would be hopeless,” McCarthy said.

One is the European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope in Chile. Like the TMT, it will consist of hundreds of small mirror segments—798, to be exact—that will be combined to form a single mirror with a diameter of 39 meters. The observatory announced this month that first six of those segments have been cast at a German factory, keeping the project on track for a first light in 2024.

The other is the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), which will also be built in Chile. Unlike the other two projects, it plans to use seven large mirrors, each 8.4 meters in diameter, creating an effective aperture of 24.5 meters. The project started casting the fifth of those seven mirrors in November.

“We’re now at the stage that we’re really into construction. It’s becoming a real thing now. We’re building a lot of optics. We’re under contract to build the telescope and we’re just about to get under contract to starting digging holes on top of the mountain” for the observatory, said Pat McCarthy, vice president for operations and external relations at the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization, in an interview during the AAS conference.

By 2021, he said, “things will really start to show up on the mountain” as the observatory building nears completion. By 2024 and 2025, he said, the mirrors will be installed and operations will begin.

Building the mirrors, he said, is the long pole in the project schedule, taking about five years to go from a pile of glass to a completed, polished mirror. “If you couldn’t do more than one mirror at a time, it would be hopeless,” he said. “We can be working on four to five at a time.”

Those mirrors posed a number of technical challenges. That size, he said, is near the maximum feasible size for a monolithic mirror, given factors ranging from the time it takes for the glass to cool after casting to its weight and risk of breakage. While other telescopes, like the TMT and the Extremely Large Telescope, are using large numbers of small segments to create a large mirror, “we’ve gone the other approach, deciding it’s best to have as much contiguous surface area as you can, so we make the biggest possible segments.”

However, not all the segments are alike: the seven segments have to be aligned so that most of them have off-axis shapes. “You have to polish eight-meter mirrors that have off-axis figures, and that’s turned out to be hard,” McCarthy said. “That was the biggest technical challenge: how do you make these complex, off-axis mirrors.” The project has figured out how to do so, he said, and is now looking at how to speed up the production process.

Another challenge is the telescope enclosure, which eschews the standard spherical dome shape for a cylindrical structure that is the equivalent of a building 20 to 22 stories tall. That structure needs to move around and be open as well. The project, he said, brought in Boeing to leverage its expertise in computational fluid dynamics and wind tunnel testing to model the structure’s aerodynamics.

“While we are not flying, we are experiencing some of the aerodynamics effects, the turbulence effects, which they deal with,” he said of Boeing. “They’ve been a very good partner helping us model the structure and optimize some of the architectural choices before we finalize those in concrete.”

There are also financial challenges. The GMT has an estimated cost of $1 billion, and when the project started its various partners provided more than $500 million to begin development, with some more raised since. “That’s enough to get us through all the remaining design work, keep the mirror production going, to start the construction,” he said.

“The global community of people working on these big telescopes are all interested in pretty much the same big science questions,” he said. “Where did we come from? What’s the universe made of? How is it evolving? Where are we going?”

However, the project still needs to raise an undisclosed amount to fully pay for the telescope. “We’ve got a fundraising operation that is up and running. We’re making good progress with meeting with prospective donors,” he said. “I think we’re in good shape on that. It’s just going to be an uphill climb.”

One advantage McCarthy said that the GMT will have over the other two large telescopes is that its “fast” optical design and wider field of view. “Because of this compact optical nature, it’s easy for us to build conventional instruments: conventional spectrographs, conventional cameras,” he said.

One of the initial instruments available at the GMT will be high-precision, high-resolution spectrometer, which the other two observatories will not have when they open since the optical designs of those telescopes make such instruments more difficult to design. “TMT and the European ELT will have those eventually, but they’re much harder to build,” he said. “It probably will take them a little longer.”

Ultimately, though, all three extremely large telescopes, whenever and wherever they’re completed, will be doing similar science. “The global community of people working on these big telescopes are all interested in pretty much the same big science questions,” he said. “Where did we come from? What’s the universe made of? How is it evolving? Where are we going? These are the basics that we all are dealing with, but the structure of how you go about it differs from one project to another.”